


Ace

by DragonsAndOtters



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Mild Smut, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-27
Updated: 2017-01-27
Packaged: 2018-09-20 04:27:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9475685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonsAndOtters/pseuds/DragonsAndOtters
Summary: Harry James Potter looks a lot like his father, with his mother's eyes of course. But someone else also looks a whole lot like a girl Sirius Black used to know.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [Lemonade](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Lemonade) collection. 



> All canon character, plots, and situations from the Harry Potter series belong to JK Rowling. I am not profiting from this work. Thanks to my beta for reading over this story for me.

**June 9, 1994**

As Sirius Black bounded toward the red headed teenager that was with his godson, he smelled her long before he set his eyes on her. Though over the twelve years in Azkaban, left alone to his most depressing thoughts, he’d smelled her often. So he didn’t think much of it until he leaped over her as she crouched down next to his godson, fear sharpening the features of her face.

He’d nearly lost his balance as he landed, not from the speed or height of his jump, but the sight of her...after all these years. Then he saw the _rat_ squirming in the ginger wizard’s grasp, and his one-track mind zeroed in on the traitor amongst them. Rage coursed violently through his veins, replacing the hopeful shock he’d felt moments before. He growled as his teeth stabbed through the boy’s leg, and he couldn’t even spare a thought for the pain he might be causing because he was so close, _so close_ , to his revenge. He had to avenge the only brother he’d ever accepted, the girl who’d stolen that brother’s heart, and the girl who’d stolen his own.

She was standing in front of him in the Shrieking Shack before he could clear his mind of the mania. He could sense her eyes on him, though his gaze was still locked onto the rat squealing from his place in the other boy’s hands. Sirius’ chest rose and fell calmly in stark contrast to the way his heart battered angrily against his ribs.

_“If you’re going to kill Harry, you’ll have to kill us too.”_

He knew without a shadow of a doubt it was her when she spoke, and the way she forced herself in front of his godson, shielding him with her own body, transported him back in time. It wasn’t just his years in Azkaban playing tricks on him; he hadn’t escaped that prison just to end up trapped inside his own insane imaginings. It was James and Ace all over again. Both fiercely protective of the other. She’d put herself between James and Severus so many times over the years. And the _boy_. His heart clenched tightly, and the pain of losing his beloved friend ravaged him as if it had only just happened. He’d barely been able to respond to the girl who was afraid for his godson’s life. And then he was on the ground, pinned down in a position that this boy’s father had put him in many times over the years they’d been friends. Though, this time, the boy he struggled against truly wished him harm. He wasn’t laughing the way James had always been.

And then Moony was there, and his godson was forced off him. He couldn’t bare to look at her any longer. He threw himself against Remus, clutching to him like he might disappear from his grasp if he didn’t hold on tightly enough. The girl’s voice broke on an exasperated scream. _“No!”_ A chill washed over him at the sound. She didn’t know him from anything other than the wanted posters. She didn’t _know_ him. But she knew about Moony...because of an essay? He was lost. His emotions were too overwhelming, and nothing made any sense. She felt betrayed, and she was terrified. He couldn’t look at her; he had to _focus_ , _focus_ , _focus_.

The rest of the night was a blur — Severus showed up; Peter was revealed; Remus forgot to take his Wolfsbane, and he had to keep Moony from attacking the children; Peter escaped in the chaos of it all. Before he knew it, he was back in a cell at the top of the castle alone with his confusion and anger. Peter had slipped through his fingers again, the _sniveling coward_. And _the girl_. She was here; she was alive. He was thinking of her when he smelled her again. His thoughts had been so dark that even the lavender and vanilla swirling around him made him think about all those times in Azkaban when he’d hallucinated her image, the sound of her voice, her unique scent.

_“BOMBARDA!”_

He flinched more from the voice than the destruction that followed. She was still real, and she was saving him. She situated herself between him and Harry on this grand beast, and it took every ounce of self control he’d ever possessed in his prison-weary bones not to pull her closer to his front, to hold her too tightly, to keep from nuzzling his face into the expanse of skin where her neck met her shoulder, as they flew him to freedom.

* * *

**July 18, 1994**

Sirius waited as long as he could before seeking out his friend. He knew he needed to hold off, move around a few times. The hippogriff made that much easier. He waited until he knew for sure he wasn’t being followed before making the trek to Remus’ home. Thankfully, his friend lived in the middle of nowhere. He wasn’t worried about anyone finding him here.

When Remus met him at the edge of the wards, Sirius didn’t feel like he deserved the happiness that washed over him. He crumpled into his friend’s embrace, and he felt like he could _breathe_ again. He and Remus hadn’t always seen eye to eye, and Sirius hated to admit that he had been on the wrong side of things more often than not. The knowledge that he’d allowed himself, even for a second, to believe Remus could’ve been the traitor amongst them pained him in unimaginable ways. But after the years he’d spent in isolation, he allowed himself this, the giving and receiving of comfort. Sirius could feel the same emotions he was experiencing rolling off of his friend. They held each other up without shame or ego. All of the water under the bridge between them drying up in one moment.

And while James and Lily would always be missed, there was someone who _could_ have joined them in this little reunion. Sirius pulled back from the embrace and locked eyes with the man in front of him. “Ace.”

Remus nodded immediately, a small smile pulling the corner of his lips up. “It was so hard not calling her that all year, you have no idea.”

“So, it’s really her, Moony?” Sirius was, at once, exuding both the excitement of a small child handed an ice cream cone and the anxiety of an adult trying to pay bills. It was clear the wrong answer could send this waif of a man into a spiral from which he might not survive.

The hint of a grin turned into a full-blown smile on Remus’ face as he continued nodding quickly. He patted his hands against Sirius’ arms. “It’s her, Pads. It’s crazy,” he said, his voice sounding as excited as Sirius looked. “I couldn’t believe it at first, but then the school gave her a _time turner_. None of the students even noticed. She hid it from us so well, but I saw her do the same to Harry and Ron.”

Sirius was processing rather slowly, and he fully pulled away from Remus for some fresh air. “Wait, why did the school _give_ her a time turner?”

Remus laughed, then, and Sirius looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. “She wanted to take _too many classes_ ,” the man said, and Sirius followed him into a fit of laughter.

“That doesn’t sound very much like _our_ Hermione,” Sirius responded when he finally caught his breath.

Remus playfully knocked his friend in the shoulder with his palm. “Sure explains how she got better marks than me even though she skived off with you all the time, though, doesn’t?” Sirius rolled his eyes, and Remus continued. “Come inside. Let’s have a drink.”

* * *

**June 4, 1996**

Bellatrix’s hex missed him by a breath. He moved instinctively at the piercing sound of Hermione’s scream, and the jet of magic whizzed by his forearm. The force of it pushed him sideways, and he stumbled slightly. He could feel the ends of the veil licking at his heels. The battling cousins reacted very differently from each other at the sound of the girl in pain. One cousin felt like his world was shattering around the edges, while the other cousin laughed with maniacal glee.

Though Bellatrix could’ve easily gained the upper hand, her need to parade her joy overpowered her, and that was all Sirius needed to do the same. He immobilized the witch and stormed past her, making his way toward the origin of the scream and leaving destruction in his wake.

When he reached her, all pretence of selflessness was lost. Without a second thought for the others fighting around him, Sirius wrapped himself around the bleeding and whimpering girl and apparated her to the gates of Hogwarts. He pulled himself to his feet and embraced Hermione like a parent carrying their child to bed. There were many times in his life that Sirius Black thanked the heavens he’d become an animagus. In this instance, his inhuman speed meant he was bursting through the doors of the Hospital Wing within minutes of entering the castle’s grounds.

Madam Pomfrey was severely angry to have been woken in such a manner, but she stopped her tirade against this rude intruder mid-word at the sight of the bleeding student wrapped in Sirius’ arms. Once Hermione was in bed and situated for healing, Madam Pomfrey sent for a house elf to alert Professor McGonagall and watched the raven-haired wizard dissolve to the floor, his arms wrapping around his knees and his head falling into the abyss that created. She frowned at the sight but quickly began the process of saving the girl.

Sirius didn’t move until his former Head of House came through the doors of the Hospital Wing. McGonagall’s heels clicked quietly, breaking the silence in the room, as she approached. Madam Pomfrey was still at work, so the professor helped Sirius to his feet and pulled him aside. Her grip was only just too tight.

“What in Merlin’s name are you _doing_?” she hissed as she brought herself up to his height and stepped into his personal space.

Sirius looked affronted. “She was going to die! What was I supposed to do?”

“Get them _all_ out, Black,” she responded incredulously. “You can’t show your favoritism. No one can know who doesn’t already remember. You know how important it is we keep her secret.”

“I know it more than anyone! Do you think I want to endanger her? That’s _why_ we’re here.”

McGonagall suddenly moved to grab him by his robes, clutching her fists around the fabric. “And it’s exactly why you shouldn’t be here, Mr. Black. The others are on their way back, including the injured. Get out of the way before someone else sees you here.”

Later, as Remus and Sirius sat side by side in the hallway waiting for news among the other families with injured loved ones, they were summoned to the headmaster’s office. “I think it’s time I explain,” Dumbledore said wistfully as the two men sat down opposite him. Sirius scoffed obnoxiously and rolled his eyes, as if to say _about time_. Remus nudged him in the side with his elbow, but Dumbledore merely continued to smile at them. “I first met Hermione Granger just before Halloween in 1970,” Sirius and Remus flinched at the mention of the holiday, but Dumbledore didn’t act like he noticed as he continued. “She walked up to the castle and demanded to see me. She didn’t reveal much, just that she was from the future and she needed help.”

“We weren’t sure how long she’d be here. It was an accident that had brought her back in time. She asked me to help her research time travel. I decided it would be best to de-age her and start her at Hogwarts. It would be much easier to pass off an orphan first year coming to Hogwarts for the first time than give her a job as a professor or try to pass her off for a seventh year appearing randomly mid-term. And we didn’t know how long she would be in that time or how much time would pass in her world.”

Sirius and Remus were listening intently, but Dumbledore stopped to take a sip of tea. “I had been working on a project with Charlus Potter, and I knew he and his wife had always hoped to have a second child. It was a perfect fit. He could help us research her predicament and adopt her.

“She managed to keep her secret and, as best we know, not affect the original timeline. As you two know, she disappeared the night the Potters were killed. Apparently, the world was preserving her, as she would have been collateral damage, no doubt.”

Remus rested his chin in his palms as he propped himself up on his knees, considering this information. But Sirius was restless beside him. “So when does she _leave_ this timeline? And when does she come back?”

Dumbledore nodded calmly and brushed his fingers thoughtfully through his beard. “She never told me from when she came, of course, so I can only guess. But it stands to reason it will be in October of her twenty first year, as that was the age she was when I first met her. As to when she’ll come back to this timeline, I couldn’t say. We still don’t know the relation of time between the two worlds. Now, if you have any more questions, I can try to answer them at a later date. We are about to have a guest.” The headmaster pushed his chair back slightly away from his desk and leaned back. “If you’ll let Harry in, I need to have a word with him. You two should go back to the Hospital Wing.”

After everyone fell asleep, Sirius transformed into Padfoot and paced protectively between the beds in which Harry and Hermione rested. If anyone noticed a strange black dog sleeping at the foot of Hermione’s bed the next morning, they never said anything.

* * *

**September 1, 1997**

Sirius stared down at the old photograph clasped tightly in one hand as he held the bottle of firewhiskey to his lips with the other. For a moment, his gaze was removed from the image, but he could still see it even as he closed his eyes. Three scraggly boys and a tiny girl walked in a line toward the boats that would usher them to the castle. Peter had taken the photo from behind them, admitting shyly when he finally showed it to them months later that he’d been too nervous to ask them to pose for one. He’d been into taking pictures back then. Before he betrayed them. He’d snapped the shot just as Hermione had thrown her head back to laugh, and Sirius smiled despite himself and the firewhiskey that burned in his belly willing him to cry.

_September 1, 1971_

_“That was_ brilliant _you guys,” Sirius exclaimed as they walked away from the Hogwarts Express. The group had only just met — save for Hermione and James who’d been sharing a home for almost a year — but they’d already pulled off their first prank. Fireworks in the hall of the train as they approached the station at Hogsmeade._

_James and Sirius had originally planned to simply cause a loud bang to “alert everyone they had arrived at Hogwarts.” When Remus had turned to the sole girl in the compartment looking for someone to back him up that this was a bad idea, Hermione shocked them all when she suggested adding a charm that would conjure sparks with the bang._

_“You’re like the ace up our sleeve,” Sirius continued excitedly, and Hermione barked out a laugh._

_“And just what do you mean by that, Sirius Black?”_

_“Just that - uh - you know, no one would expect_ you _to have such good prank ideas.”_

_She didn’t stop as she placed her hands defiantly on her hips, but her unimpressed attitude was heavily implied without a stamp of her tiny foot. “Why not?”_

_“You’re a girl!” Sirius said, trying to save face. He knew he wasn’t getting anywhere good in this conversation. But he kept trying. “Most girls aren’t as_ cool _as you, Hermione.”_

_“Oi,” James piped up, batting Sirius’ shoulder with only a sliver of annoyance. “That’s my sister you’re trying to flirt with. Now that Lily Evans, though, she’s cool isn’t she?”_

_Hermione scoffed. “She’s someone’s sister too you know,” she said with a roll of her eyes. But Hermione smirked when she met Sirius’ eye, James having been rendered silent by the internal ethical struggle that had been introduced. She and Sirius shared a laugh at his withdrawn face, and Sirius wondered if this was what having a crush felt like._

**September 1, 1997**

Sirius’ eyes were growing heavier from the alcohol as he stared at more photographs from their first few years at Hogwarts. They’d been thick as thieves, all of them. Sirius had taken to calling Hermione “Ace.” She never wanted to take credit with the marauders when they pulled off a prank, but she was always essential in their success. Her incognito assistance had come in handy when teachers began to question the boys on their antics. _Well if Hermione was with them it had to have been someone else…_ McGonagall would say, thinking of the smartest student she had out of all her classes. But that didn’t keep Minnie from always keeping a close eye on them. She’d wised up about Hermione long before graduation, but it had been an asset for as long as it lasted.

Harry, Hermione, and Ron were less than a fortnight into their Horcrux hunt, and it all made Sirius very nervous. They had no way of knowing if she’d affected this timeline by her existence in the past. Would she survive in this life long enough to be sent back? Could Hermione have come back into his life only to never truly _be_ with him again? He passed out on the floor of his bedroom in Grimmauld Place plagued with these worries.

* * *

**May 17, 2000**

Between losing Remus and the anxiety of when Hermione would be sent back in time, Sirius was on edge. He sat in the kitchen at Grimmauld Place with Harry, holding Teddy and a glass of firewhiskey as they waited for Hermione to return home.

She’d moved in with them after her breakup with Ron. It had been hard for Sirius, watching the love of his life dating other people. Of course, he couldn’t hold it against her. But it didn’t make it any easier that she lived in his house but did not share his bed.

“I’m home,” her voice rang out through the room as she entered the kitchen and smiled at her boys, and they all smiled back. “Smells good,” she said of the food being held under a stasis charm. “I have some news,” she continued, as she sat at the table. “I’ve taken a job as an Unspeakable. So, if I’m out more than usual, well, that’s why.”

Sirius sat straighter, readjusting the babe in his grasp. Every hair on his body stood to attention. This _had_ to be it.

* * *

**October 29, 2000**

“Hermione didn’t come home last night,” Harry said nervously as he entered the kitchen.

Sirius stilled, a forkful of eggs hanging in mid air. “Maybe she got caught up at work,” he replied calmly. “You know she’s practically married to the place.”

Harry sighed. “Maybe, but she would’ve sent word.”

“You’re right. If we don’t hear from her by tonight, we’ll discuss what to do next,” Sirius responded with a nod that said the conversation was over. He could barely keep his excitement from bubbling over. The thought of all the things she would be living for the first time made him smile to himself.

Harry returned from work late that evening, and dinner was waiting for him. “I haven’t heard from her, have you?” Harry asked anxiously as he sat down.

Sirius poured them drinks, handing one to his godson with a significant look. “Harry, there are some things about Hermione that you should know.”

The wizard wove a tale of time travel and fate and true love, explaining how the same girl could be both his childhood friend and Harry’s. He’d had a lot of questions, especially about his godfather dating his best friend, but ultimately, he was most concerned about when she’d be back.

So Sirius finally told Harry about that fateful night from his point of view. How he’d gone to James and Lily’s house to pick Hermione up for their date and instead found ruins and death. “Hermione’s body was never found,” Sirius said at last. “And now we know why.”

“So she could be back in just a few days?” Harry asked.

“That’s what Dumbledore thought would happen, anyway, and so far he’s been right.”

“We should wait then. Tell anyone who asks that she’s sick, and see if she comes back,” Harry responded, more logical about the situation that Sirius could have ever hoped.

* * *

**October 30, 2000**

They sat up drinking and talking throughout the night. When the room started to spin, Sirius excused himself to his bedroom. He sat on the ground, leaned against his bed, and began to flip through the photos he’d shown Harry to prove he wasn’t clinically insane, the ones he’d kept locked away, the ones Hermione had known to save. One in particular caught his eye. He hadn’t shown this one to Harry, as he probably wouldn’t have appreciated the story behind the photo. But Sirius managed a small grin through his tears as he gazed at himself reflected in the image. The light in his smile reached his eyes as he lay on his stomach in their bed looking at her, his dark hair splayed out messily along his back. She’d taken the photo while straddling his sides before spreading kisses along his skin. The memory was so much clearer than it had ever been, maybe, he mused drunkenly, because he knew she was living for the first time the memories he was reliving now.

_October 30, 1981_

_Sirius Black entered the small flat only slightly battered after a long mission for the Order. Hermione was there, a cup of his favorite tea waiting for him in her grasp. She looked at him with a cocked eyebrow._

_“We’re all good, Ace,” he said, knowing that’s what she needed to hear. When they’d been in school, she would wait up all night in the common room every full moon waiting to hear that they were all safe. And that was what he’d always told her as three of them marched back up to the boys dorms exhausted, leaving one in the Hospital Wing to mend. She smiled at him, and he took the cup from her hands only after kissing her on the lips, savoring the taste of her._

_“You smell awful,” Hermione teased as she used her now-free hands to push the smell away. He chuckled and rolled his eyes as he took a sip of the warm tea. “I’ll start you a bath.”_

_“Only if you join me,” he responded with a smirk._

_Hermione swatted him playfully before she turned toward the bathroom. “That can probably be arranged.”_

_When he finished his cup of tea, he headed toward the bathroom his girlfriend had never re-emerged from, leaving ratty, dirt- and blood-stained clothes in his wake. What he found when he opened the door simply took his breath away. Hermione had filled the golden-clawed garden tub with warm lavender-scented water. Her back was to him as she poured vanilla bubbles into the tub, and she was stark naked. Her sun-kissed skin glowed, and her golden brown hair fell in a curtain around her shoulders. Quickly, he divested himself of the rest of his clothes and stepped up behind her. His excitement at the sight of her evident when his cock pushed against her back. She shivered at the contact and turned in his arms._

_“I’ve missed you,” she said against his lips as she kissed him, wrapping her arms around his neck. He groaned against her mouth, not wanting to break the contact to respond, knowing that the emotions behind this kiss said everything he felt. It was Hermione who finally stepped back. “But honestly, you just smell awful,” she chuckled and pointed to the frothing water. “In.”_

_Sirius obeyed, sighing as he sat, letting the warmth wash over him. He watched her intently as she too climbed into the tub and straddled him. Without speaking, she grabbed a washcloth from the side of the tub and began massaging his chest, cleaning the dirt and blood from his skin. He rested his head against the cool metal and closed his eyes, basking in the loving attention._

_After she was satisfied with his cleanliness, she began to trail kisses along his neck. “Now that we’ve got that taken care of,” she said, her voice thick with lust, “I think there’s something else we need to take care of, yeah?” Sirius’ heart raced, and he moaned when her soft, warm hand wrapped around his cock._

_“Fuck,” was all Sirius could say as she pumped her fist up and down his shaft. His hands were all over her, touching every expanse of skin he could reach — her neck, shoulders, breasts, stomach, and the spot just inside of her that made her buck against his hand seeking more friction. “Hermione,” he said, and his voice was a prayer. “Please.”_

_She lifted herself up, moving her hand from him to place both squarely on his chest, and brought herself down, sheathing him inside of her. They both moaned in unison at the contact. Sirius watched her in awe, her breasts bouncing magnificently as he pushed himself inside of her and back out again. Neither cared that water and bubbles splashed over the sides of the tub as they danced together in ecstasy. After they both came_ up, up up _, Hermione rested against his chest and placed her forehead on his shoulder as they came back down again. Sirius held her, smiling against her hair as he kissed her head, knowing that she could mend the pains of a hard mission better than any bath or tea could and thanking whatever deity that brought her into his life._

_Later, they lay in bed, Hermione straddling his back as she worked the knots out of his muscles. “Sirius,” she said suddenly, and he turned to look at her, a smile in his eyes._

_“What was that for?” he asked, laughing as she took a photo of him._

_She laughed with him, kissing his shoulders. “I want to remember everything about this, about you.”_

**October 30, 2000**

He’d thought it was strange when she’d said it. He’d told her as much, that she had forever to memorize everything about him. Tears spilled over his eyes as now he understood what she meant. She must have known her time in his world was coming to an end. Must have known what was coming.

Sirius stood slowly, packing the photos away and placing them on the bedside table. It might have been wishful thinking, but he tidied his room before falling into bed — after all, tomorrow he may have his girl back.

* * *

**October 31, 2000**

Sirius and Harry had been anxious all day. Halloween was always hard for them, but this one was unlike any other. They found themselves switching back and forth from drinking firewhiskey and coffee as they moved into different rooms around the house — unsure of where or when she might reappear, and though neither would admit it, _if_.

Varying emotions washed over the both of them at the familiar popping sound of a person apparating. They both ran toward the sound and found themselves in the sitting room at Grimmauld Place. Hermione, though physically unhurt, was crying, her face red and puffy. “Sirius,” she whispered, and her voice was like a prayer. She ran to him, crumpling in his arms. He was near tears himself as he committed to memory the feeling of her body against his. This was his Hermione, his Ace. She allowed herself to sob against his shoulder, soaking his shirt, for only a few moments before pulling away. Her gaze raked along his face before she stilled and turned to the wizard in her peripheral.

Her heart stopped at the sight, past and present merging in her mind as she looked at Harry Potter. She saw him with new eyes as just looking at him transported her back in time. Her heart clenched tightly, and the pain of losing her beloved friends ravaged her as if it had only just happened, and for her it _had_ just happened. James fell right before her very eyes. Her time turner had activated just in time for her to escape before Lord Voldemort’s wand was turned on her. She sobbed loudly as she looked at him, the sound catching in her throat as she brought her hands to her face and ran into his arms. Sirius allowed them a moment before he came up behind her, placing a calming hand on her back. “We’re all good, Ace.”


End file.
